Multifaceted confidence in exploratory choice

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 20; no. 1; p. e0304923
• Main Authors: Solopchuk, Oleg, Dayan, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 09.01.2025; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biology and Life Sciences; Choice (Psychology); Choice Behavior - physiology; Cognitive ability; Confidence; Decision making; Dissociation; Experiments; Exploration; Exploratory Behavior - physiology; Female; Humans; Hypotheses; Male; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Physical Sciences; Psychological research; Reinforcement; Research and Analysis Methods; Reward; Social Sciences; Stochastic models; Young Adult; Germany

Our choices are typically accompanied by a feeling of confidence—an internal estimate that they are correct. Correctness, however, depends on our goals. For example, exploration-exploitation problems entail a tension between short- and long-term goals: finding out about the value of one option could...